


In The End

by SunRae5



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 22:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17272364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunRae5/pseuds/SunRae5
Summary: At the end of their lives, Harry, Ron and Hermione find themselves together once more.





	In The End

**Author's Note:**

> Please be aware that this story has some themes (see the tags above) that may be triggering or uncomfortable for people. The deaths are off-screen and not described in detail but they do form the core of this one-shot.

Harry saw Hermione sitting on a bench next to the Great Lake and ambled over to her slowly, Ron joining him from somewhere behind him. Once they had reached her, they sat down next to her, Ron's knee creaking rather dangerously as he let out a sigh of relief of relieving the pressure of standing off of it.

 They sat there in silence, watching the ripples of the water as the squid moved below the surface.

 "Well Hogwarts hasn't changed at all." Ron finally broke the silence and Hermione and Harry turned to face him.

 "It really hasn't." Hermione smiled softly as she turned back to face the lake.

 The combination of the setting sun and the ripples on the lake created a kaleidoscope of colours that danced across the water and were reflected back in Harry's glasses.

 "Where's Ginny?" Hermione broke the silence this time.

 "Oh, she's inside. Talking to the new headmaster or something." Harry waved his hand in an abstract manner.

 "He seems like a decent bloke." Ron added.

 "Quite young though." Harry took off his glasses to clean them.

 "You think everyone's young these days." Hermione chuckled.

 "That's because everyone is young these days." Harry muttered, slightly put out.

 "He's sixty, that's not that young." Hermione pointed out. "You already had grandchildren on the way when you were his age, remember?"

 "Pfft, and?"

 "You're one hundred and sixteen and we're a hundred and seventeen, we're old." Ron answered Harry's rhetorically-intended question.

 "It's rude to point out a woman's age Ronald." Hermione's eyes twinkled.

 "Eh, we're long past that point." Ron waved his hand absentmindedly.

 "You two are ridiculous." Harry laughed.

 Silence fell over them once more and they all basked in the last rays of sunshine.

 "Can you believe it's nearly been one hundred years?" Ron asked, turning around to look at the castle looming behind them.

 Hermione's snort answered the question rather well.

 "Of course not." Harry replied. "I honestly didn't think I'd make it past that year."

 "Of course you did." Hermione shook her head.

 "We all thought we wouldn't." Ron pointed out.

 "Speak for yourself." Hermione prodded him in the side with her elbow.

 "I am." He grinned at her and she smiled as she shook her head.

 A soft breeze washed over them and Hermione tilted her head up slightly as the air played with her silvery-white locks.

 "Next year will be impossible." Harry muttered somewhat darkly and Ron and Hermione both turned to him, their right eyebrow raised.

 "You two are creepy when you do that, you know that?" Harry told them.

 "We know." Hermione snorted.

 "Years of practice mate." Ron grinned.

 "So much practice." Hermione's eyes twinkled mischievously.

 "I'll be on Hawaii." Ron added. "It's already been bad enough this year. And Rosie wants to go somewhere warm so I told her we can go in May next year."

 "Rosie's doing well?" Hermione asked.

 "Yeah, she's got her grandkids this weekend so she's got her hands full." Ron grinned happily.

 "The great-grandkids are well too?"

 "Yeah, Allie's flying her first broom and Alfie's discovered football." Ron's eyes were filled with joy as he talked about his great-grandchildren.

 "That'll keep Jane and Arthur busy then." Hermione smirked.

 "Oh it is, they can barely keep up. I think Arthur's despairing somewhat and Jane's broom- and ball-proofing everything in their house right now." Ron laughed. "I think mum did something similar when we were all small. And Lavender and I definitely did the same when Rosie discovered brooms."

 Hermione laughed. "I remember doing the same when Cassie and Scorp discovered brooms. Of course, their father wasn't much of a help, he was far too happy that they liked flying considering my dislike of it."

 They all smiled and settled back on the bench once more.

 "Have you told Rosie about your sugar yet?" Hermione finally remembered and turned to look at Ron.

 "Yeah." He sighed and looked somewhat glum. "She's pretty mad I didn't tell her earlier. Lav had a right go at me too. I just love cake and sweets too much."

 "You just love food." Hermione pointed out.

 "That too." Ron grinned. "Food's always been my one big love."

 They all laughed. That definitely hadn't changed.

 "What about you Hermione?" Harry remembered his inital question and turned to his friend.

 "I definitely won't come next year. I have no intention of being there just to see them glorify the end of the war even more than they usually do just because it's the centenary of its end. Also, I'll be in Italy. I want to visit Jasper and Horatio and their new grandkids."

 "You can do that at any point in the year." Harry pleaded.

 "Sorry Harry, but I really don't want to be there." Hermione shrugged.

 "Traitors." Harry looked at them through narrowed eyes.

 "We're not the infamous 'The-Boy-Who-Lived', you get that honour all to yourself." Hermione prodded him in the side softly, the apology present in her eyes.

 "Sod that honour." Harry did not look happy.

 "They've already conned you into attending, haven't they?" Ron asked.

 "Yeah." Harry nodded in resignation. "I don't really have that much of a choice either." He shrugged. "And I'll just turn off my hearing aid if it gets too much."

 "That's the spirit." Hermione smiled softly and Ron reached around her to pat him on the shoulder in commiseration.

 They all turned around as they heard cheers from the hall. The looked at each other and smiled and shook their heads. It had been many years since they had joined in with the celebrations properly, even at the start it had been a battle to do so.

 The war was too close to home to them. They understood celebrating its end but they had lost too much to it to really feel the euphoria others seemed to at the celebration.

 "I meant to ask, how are you holding up Hermione?" Ron finally spoke up, distracting from the noise from the castle.

 She smiled sadly at him. "I'm...coping."

 Harry and Ron reached around her shoulders each from one side and hugged her and she let herself be enveloped by their warmth.

 "Have you been back to the mansion yet?" Harry prodded softly, carefully.

 She shook her head, her eyes downcast. "No, I just- I can't. He's still so present there. His jacket is still on the chair where he always forgot it before going to bed." A few tears escaped from her eyes.

 This was the first anniversary of the end of the war without her late husband and it had been so difficult to leave her bed that morning just to make it to Hogwarts on time.

 "You need to go back some time." Ron squeezed her shoulder.

 "I know. And I will. But- right now- I-" She swallowed heavily. "I'll go when Scorp's in town next month. I just- I can't go back by myself, it's too real that he's gone." She shook her head and bumped her head softly first with Ron and then with Harry.

 "I'll be okay at some point. Just not right now. And I'll go back next month and sort through our stuff. I'll probably give Scorp the mansion and move to our apartment in Edinburgh." She smiled sadly at both of them.

 "You're strong Hermione and don't forget, we're always here for you, even if Draco is gone." Harry said and Ron nodded in agreement.

 "We'll always be here for you, just like always." He squeezed her shoulder once more before pulling back his arm back to his side.

 "My two musketeers." Hermione laughed, even as another tear ran down her cheek.

 "And don't you forget it." Harry smiled warmly and pulled his arm back as well.

 They spent the rest of the evening sitting there on that bench watching the sun set over the lake.

~.~.~.~.~

 Two weeks later Harry woke up to a knock on the door downstairs.

 "I'll get it." He told a very sleepy Ginny who looked up at him from where her head still rested on the pillow.

 Knocks in the middle of the night never bode any good news. Gripping his wand in his hand, he went down the stairs more slowly than he may have done once upon a time and peeked through the peep-hole to see who was there.

 It was Scorpius.

 Opening the door, he looked in confusion at the younger man.

 "Scorpius, you know you have access to the floo, right?" His brow furrowed as he took in the other man's appearance.

 "I know, but- I couldn't-" He waved his hands about in the air, "I didn't trust my head enough to get here in one piece." His distracted look flitted over Harry and to the window and back again.

 "Why don't you come in?" Harry pushed the door further open and beckoned him in. Scorpius came up and let himself be led to the kitchen, sitting down heavily in a chair at the new counter Ginny had gotten built there three years ago.

 Watching him out of the corner of his eye, Harry moved around to make a cup of tea. Once the boiling water was in the cup, he set the mug down in front of Scorpius and sat down next to him.

 "Scorpius, what's the matter? Has something happened? Is Hermione okay?" The last sentence caused Scorpius to finally snap to attention and his eyes filled with tears.

 "Mum- she's- she's-" He began hiccupping and Harry suddenly knew. That feeling that had saved his life more times than he could count settled in his gut and he felt his breath knocked out of him. He leaned forward and hugged the other man.

 "She's gone, isn't she?" He asked softly, already knowing the answer.

 Scorpius' tears were the only answer he got.

~.~.~.~.~

 Following Hermione's death everything seemed to slow down and become more grey. It was hard to believe and more often than not, Harry simply forgot that she was gone and would find himself dialling her number on the phone only to get the message back that that line had been disconnected.

 It never failed to knock the air out of his lungs and his legs out from underneath him.

 It was hard to believe that Hermione, vibrant, strong, ex-Minister of Magic Hermione was gone.

 He had somehow thought that she would be around forever. But he guessed that even the strongest of them only had a limited time on this earth.

 At least she had died peacefully in her sleep and not on the battle field like she had often feared.

~.~.~.~.~

 Five years later Ron fell asleep one night and was found by his daughter Rose two days later when he didn't turn up for their weekly lunch date.

 Apparently his diabetes had caused a heart attack in his sleep. Harry remembered that Ron had been complaining of a shortness of breath and feelings of indigestion towards the end of that evening. But as Ron had been switching over to a new diet due to his new medication, Harry and Ginny hadn't thought too much of it at the time when they'd left to go back home that evening.

 According to the medi-witches, those could have been signs of the oncoming attack.

 Harry knew that maybe, if they had known that, they may have gotten him to St. Mungo’s on time.

 He blamed himself for not seeing the signs that had been there.

 He couldn't get out of bed for a month.

 The two people he had thought would be around forever at his side had passed away and now he was the only one left.

 At the beginning they had been three, and now there was only one.

~.~.~.~.~

 Two months later, Ginny was sure he was depressed, that he wasn't coping, that he should go to see someone to talk.

 And so he did.

~.~.~.~.~

 Eventually he remembered something, something important.

 And for the first time in months, Harry felt something other than sadness, he felt hope.

~.~.~.~.~

 And when he finally fell asleep for the last time decades after that, he did so with a smile because he knew which two faces would be there waiting for him on the other side.

 Because no matter how many years had passed, how many times they had fought over her chosen partner, how many relationships they may have gone through and how many adventures they had had, there was one thing that would never change.

 In the end, it was as it had always been: the three of them, standing there together at the precipice of something new, ready to begin a new adventure all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> The last lines of this one-shot came to me in the middle of the night as I was trying to fall asleep and try as I might, I couldn't get it out of my head until I had written it. Despite the sadness, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.


End file.
